Stolen Years: Australian prisoners of war

Escape maps

“A duty to escape”

Captured soldiers believed they had “a duty to escape”. Would-be
escapers focused on how to get out of the camp and then how to make their way
to neutral territory. Prisoners went to great lengths to obtain and reproduce
maps of Germany. Many were hand-drawn while others were produced with great
ingenuity. They used ink ground from pencils, gelatine (to make stencils) from
jelly, lithographic plates out of limestone blocks taken from bombed buildings,
and printing presses made from floorboards and metal bars. All of this equipment
had to be hidden from nosy guards.

These maps were produced ingeniously, in secret and at great risk in camps
in Germany later in the Second World War.